Health, Safety, and Risks in the Chemistry

Laboratory

Neal M. Abrams, Ph.D.Faculty of Chemistry

SUNY College of Environmental Science and ForestrySyracuse, NY

ObjectivesDiscuss the sources of risk in the lab, common safety practices, and the types of health concerns professionals might see.

Review the types of students engage in chemical laboratory work everyday.

Many students are either novices, unaware of their surrounds or experienced graduate students who can be a bit too cavalier.

These are the students who inevitably end up seeking professional medical help.

A little about myself...Instruct 300+ students in General Chemistry laboratories

>85% freshman

Supervise 15 Teaching Assistants

Direct undergraduate research program

Lab experience at Ithaca College, Penn State, Cornell, and ESF

Certification in Secondary Chemistry Education

A topic of Relevance

CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWSJUNE 2010

PUBLISHED 2010

Tragic Incidents in the News

Methyl mercury, [Hg(CH3)2]Karen Wetterhahn

1996

...but these are very rare

Students Types: Health, Safety, and Risks

Graduate Undergraduate

TRAINED IN RISKS, BUT CAVALIER

UNTRAINED, BUT EXPOSED TO FEWER RISKS

• HAVE AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE• MAY OR MAY NOT BE IN CHEMISTRY• WORK IN LABS FOR 5+ YEARS• SOMEWHAT LESS INVINCIBLE

• TYPICALLY FIRST-TIMERS• OFTEN NON-MAJORS• INEXPERIENCED• INVINCIBLE

Students

The Graduate Student Experience (this is my life)

4-5+ years working in one or more research groups

Trained initially by EHS, then by department, then by lab mates

Comfortable in the lab, good workers

Day-to-day autonomous research

Late-night and weekend work

The Undergraduate Experience (this is something additional)

Generally novices in the lab

Minimal knowledge about chemical interactions

Somewhat clumsy

Trained within classes, then in research labs

May perform research under a graduate student

Secondary direction by advisor

Only working when others are present

Risk: The human factor

• Students are:

Sleepy

Sick (colds, flu, allergies)

Low on nutrition (blood sugar)

Depressed/agitated/anxious

Safety Measures and PPE

Goggles

Gloves

Lab coats (sometimes)

Eye wash

Safety shower

Fire extinguisher

Fire blanket

Risks in the LabIf you can think of it, we have it...

Chemical Mechanical

Flammable

Toxic

Corrosive

Reactive

Thermal

Sharps

Explosive

How do we know the risks?No one can know everything about each of the many chemicals students will use in the lab.

Corollary: How can we teach all this to the students themselves?

Luckily, chemicals present only four classes of chemical hazards and a fifth, physical, hazard in some instances.

Our current solution: The MSDS

•Required list of information about a chemical including physical and chemical characteristics, fire and explosion hazards, lethal dose, etc

•Must be available for every chemical in the laboratory

•Provided by suppliers, also online

Chemical HazardsCarcinogens (benzene)

Mutagens (radiation)

Teratogens (tobacco, PCBs)

Sensitizers (formaldehyde)

Lachrymators (think onions...)

Sternutators (capsaicin)

Explosives/flammables

Assumptions We MakeThe practical work is carried out or supervised by a qualified science teacher with adequate knowledge of chemistry and the equipment used

Practical work is conducted in a properly equipped and maintained laboratory

Rules for student behavior are strictly enforced

Care is taken with normal laboratory operations such as heating substances and handling heavy objects

Good laboratory practice is observed when chemicals are handled

Eye protection is worn whenever wet-work is being done

Reactions resulting in fumes/smoke will be kept in a fume hood

Hand-washing facilities are readily available in the laboratory

Students are taught safe techniques for such activities as heating chemicals, smelling them, or pouring from bottles

The Principles of Chemical SafetyJay A. YoungFrom keynote address, 48th NEACT Summer Conference, August 18-22, 1986

• The essence of chemical safety is comprised in four principles, each with a corollary and examples.

1. Every chemical without exception is hazardous.

The corollary: "Hazardous" means possessing a potential to cause harm. The manner of use of a chemical determines the probability that harm is caused.

Examples: Oxygen inhaled at a concentration a bit or more greater than about 20% is poisonous. We take care to refrain from breathing oxygen at high concentrations for long periods of time. (Or, if you like, mother nature in this case has taken care of this for us.)

No one deliberately pours water at, say, 95°C on themselves.

Laboratory Safety InformationJay A. YoungFrom keynote address, 48th NEACT Summer Conference, August 18-22, 1986

2. Every accident announces that it will happen before it happens.

The corollary: All accidents are predictable and therefore in principle preventable.

Examples: In the middle of the lab periods, a student says, "Ouch!" because they inadvertently but briefly touched a piece of hot glass tubing. That "Ouch" was the accident, a serious burn from hot glass, announcing its forthcoming arrival.

You see a student briefly remove their safety glasses in order to more conveniently read the meniscus level of a liquid in a graduated cylinder. And eye injury accident has just announced it is coming.

Spilled water, or other liquid, on the lab bench is not cleaned up within a reasonable times. Now you have been told that some one is going to slip and fall because of an un-mopped-up liquid spill on the floor.

Laboratory Safety InformationJay A. YoungFrom keynote address, 48th NEACT Summer Conference, August 18-22, 1986

3. If it might happen, it will happen -- eventually.

The corollary: There is no such thing as personal immunity from harm. Each of us has said (me included) at one time or another, "I'll take a chance, it won't happen to me this one time." And, since we survived, it didn't happen; we beat the odds. Remember that when we say to ourselves, "I'll take a chance and do it because the probability of harm is very low," we are really saying that the probability of harm is not zero. Whenever the probability of an event is greater than zero, no matter how small, then it is certain that the event will occur. (It is foolish to hope that it will not occur to us.)

Example: When when was the last time you did not "buckle up" when driving your car?

Laboratory Safety InformationJay A. YoungFrom keynote address, 48th NEACT Summer Conference, August 18-22, 1986

4. Each person is individually and personally responsible for the safe use of chemicals.

The corollary: Use a chemical only after you havea. Reviewed the kinds of hazards presented by that chemical. b. Established the precautions that will minimize the probability of harm. c. And, have prepared in advance for emergency measures in the event something goes wrong.

Example: Unless washed off by vigorous scrubbing under copiously flowing water initiated within 90 seconds after exposure, a spill of phenol on approximately 100 square inches of skin (e.g. a circle whose radius is a bit less than 6 inches) can be fatal.

When Will a Student Seek Help?As a last resort. They don’t want to deal with or think about:

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork

Immortality

Shame

What would you do if your options were to stand virtually naked under a 55 °F shower in front of your classmates or...just go home?

Things you might seeLacerations from glassware

Burns

Thermal

Chemical

Rash/irritation

Indirect physical injury

Injury to the eye?

Lacerations/cutsThe most important factor is what you don’t see

What was on the glassware/needle beforehand...

http://www.hexarmor.com/products/needlestick-resistant/

BurnsThermal: Hot or cold

Sources: Hot plates, oil, water, liquid nitrogenSome oil baths heated to > 300 °C (572 °F)

Boiling point of liquid nitrogen: -196 °C or -321 °F

Chemical

Acids, bases, otherse,g. silver nitrate, AgNO3

Rashes/Irritation

Similar to burns, though not usually instantaneous or debilitating

Dilute acids, bases

Indirect injuries

Physical injury due to:

Tripping, falling, slipping, lifting, etc.

Eye InjuriesShould NEVER happen

• “Contact lenses worn with goggles are acceptable, but safety glasses and prescription safety glasses without goggles do not provide adequate protection. Increase the degree of protection (use face shields, laboratory hoods, etc.) when the hazards increase.”

• “In some workplaces where hazardous chemicals are used or handled, wearing con- tact lenses is prohibited or discouraged. These prohibitions are based on rumors and perceived risks. Studies of the literature have refuted these risks.”

• “The consensus is that contact lenses can be worn in most chemical laboratories, as long as safety goggles are also worn” ACS Comm. on Safety

To Lab Coat or not to Lab Coat

An on-going debate

“And, instructors and safety experts say, a “one size fits all” approach to personal protective equipment (PPE) doesn’t teach students what they need to know.”

“Having people wear latex gloves all the time is one of the habits that cost us Dr. Wetterhahn,” says Ralph Stuart, environmental safety manager at the University of Vermont, referring to a fatal mercury-poisoning incident at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire.”

C & EN, June 2010

Current SafeguardsTrained faculty, TAs

Presence of PPE, safety equipment

Low-hazard experimentsPlanning for “worst case scenario”, i.e. incompatible chemicals

Safety quizzes, prelab notes

Common sense?

Sources of Training

The American Chemical Society’s Committee on Professional Training

OSHA/EPA

Faculty input

Grad students/Postdocs

Here say

A Safety Culture?

What are the risks of not teaching safety?

How important is safety

Topics that are Covered (or should be) in laboratory classes

What to do in an Emergency

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Types of chemicals and their associated hazard

Materials safety data sheets (MSDSs)

Lab housekeeping

How Can we Augment Safety Training?

Remove the stigma of “a bunch of rules”

Get schools and student to incorporate safety as a part of everyday study

Include safety as a part of faculty evaluations

Time for some personal anecdotes

There was this one time...

Methods of TrainingIn-class presentation

Syllabus

Videos

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